Saudi Newspaper Appoints First Female Editor

A Saudi English-language daily has become the country’s first newspaper with a female editor-in-chief after the Saudi Gazette this week appointed Somayya Jabarti to succeed veteran journalist Khaled Almaeena for the top post.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” she told the Wall Street Journal over the phone, “because I did not think we as a country were ready for a female editor. But I believe this is a statement. I don’t think it is haphazard.”

Ms. Jabarti, who said she hopes her appointment will open the door to other women and young people to assume senior positions in the media, gave credit to the management of Okaz publishing company for taking the initiative and to her former boss and mentor Mr. Almaeena for whom she has worked for a dozen of years.

In 2011, when Mr. Almaeena was at the helm of rival newspaper Arab News he appointed Ms. Jabarti as his deputy, making her the first Saudi woman to reach such a position. But soon after, he resigned from the paper and took some time off before he agreed to lead Saudi Gazette where he brought with him many of his old colleagues, including Ms. Jabarti.

While Ms. Jabarti said she was surprised about her appointment, it was clear to media observers in the country for quite some time that Mr. Almaeena was grooming her to succeed him in the editor-in-chief position.

“She has been associated with me for almost 13 years, and I’ve had the goal almost as long of wanting to see a Saudi woman enter the male-dominated bastion of editors-in-chief,” he wrote in his farewell letter. “It was not a question of gender but of merit that decided and earned her this opportunity. I am proud to have played a role in her career.”

There are 15 daily newspapers in the kingdom. Only two of them are published in English: Saudi Gazette and Arab News. Both based in the coastal city of Jeddah on the Red Sea.

While most newspapers the country are privately owned, editors cannot be appointed without approval from the Ministry of Information and Culture. This fact makes editors serve as gatekeepers, ensuring that stories in their publications do not cross the ill-defined red lines that could result in them losing their jobs. The editor of a local newspaper was fired in February 2013 after a columnist wrote a series of articles criticizing the government’s economic policy and raising questions about the country’s future. The man who replaced him was subsequently fired last month.

Saudi Arabia ranked 164th out of 180 on the 2014 World Press Freedom Index published last week by the international watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

However, English-language newspapers in the conservative kingdom have always enjoyed relatively more freedom than their Arabic-language counterparts. Because English is not the most common language in the country, Saudi Gazette and Arab News remained somewhat off the censors’ radar and managed to run many stories considered risqué, especially those covering human and women’s rights issues.

Ms. Jabarti said she believes the newspaper has a role to push the envelope, adding that the problem lies more with censorship which exists in people’s minds than censorship by the authorities. She said some of her reporters for example still ask her if they can use words like “pork” or “sex” in their stories. She finds that “funny”, she said.

As for the competition, the newly appointed editor welcomed it and said there is space for a third English-language newspaper in the country to cater for a growing population including a large number of young people returning home after studying in the West.

The last few years have witnessed a proliferation of local news websites in Saudi Arabia, especially in smaller cities that don’t usually get much coverage in the national press. But the government moved to restrict them by forcing site owners to register with Ministry of Information and Culture. Access was blocked to 41 local news sites last week for failing to obtain permission from the ministry.

Despite these restrictions, the Internet still offers a far more free space for Saudi citizens to talk about news and current events, and this has put pressure on local media in the country to open up in order to stay relevant. Saudis are avid users of social networks, with the country ranking as the first in the world in Twitter penetration.

“Social media has provided a new yardstick for mainstream media, but a healthy one to sustain ourselves,” Ms. Jabarti said. “Saudi people have gotten to know their voices.”